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View Full Version : Over 137,000 in the UK, can not speak English


arista
05-03-2025, 02:07 PM
[Almost one million people in England cannot English well or at all, new figures have shown.

Official statistics reveal that 10 per cent of the country's residents that were born overseas - equivalent to 932,208 people - speak little to no English.

A total of 794,332 people (8.6 per cent) cannot speak English well, while 137,876 people (1.4 per cent) are unable to speak it at all.]



This Costs a Fortune

They should learn to speak English - by Law


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14462351/people-Britain-speak-English.html

Crimson Dynamo
05-03-2025, 02:10 PM
The NHS waste millions on interpreters

scandal

Cherie
05-03-2025, 02:31 PM
There is such an opportunity here to save probably millions for the NHS by asking people to bring their own interpreters, in the main people will end up bringing family members or friends.... so the cost will be low to the patient but save the NHS ...I wonder how many times interpreters are booked and the patient fails to show up for an appointment

Livia
05-03-2025, 02:36 PM
It is totally free to learn English in the UK. Totally free... English for Speakers of Other Languages and English as a Second Language courses are not only free but available all over the country. I remember Shamima Begum's father speaking out against the government because his daughter had been radicalised in this country. He had to speak through an interpreter because he couldn't speak English after being here for more than 20 years. We're a ****ing joke.

arista
05-03-2025, 02:54 PM
It is totally free to learn English in the UK. Totally free... English for Speakers of Other Languages and English as a Second Language courses are not only free but available all over the country. I remember Shamima Begum's father speaking out against the government because his daughter had been radicalised in this country. He had to speak through an interpreter because he couldn't speak English after being here for more than 20 years. We're a ****ing joke.


Yes
but they refuse to go.......................

arista
05-03-2025, 02:56 PM
The NHS waste millions on interpreters

scandal



They have no choice

Livia
05-03-2025, 03:22 PM
Yes
but they refuse to go.......................

There should be no choice.

arista
05-03-2025, 03:44 PM
There should be no choice.


Tell that to the Labour Party.................

Cherie
05-03-2025, 03:57 PM
They have no choice

Its not just Labour it's been like this through 14 years of Tory rule and Labour before that, they have a choice, all they have to do is give notice that they will no longer be providing interpreters and people will have to bring their own, with AI translation apps its not a big deal any more anyway

Jessica.
05-03-2025, 04:03 PM
Your colonisers forced people from other countries to speak English instead of learning their language. Also it takes a very long time to learn a language. I'm sure a lot of people counted are in the process.

Cherie
05-03-2025, 04:15 PM
Your colonisers forced people from other countries to speak English instead of learning their language. Also it takes a very long time to learn a language. I'm sure a lot of people counted are in the process.

I bet you speak Portugese and if you dont you have to take an interpreter with you to hospital appointment :shrug: why should it be any different in the UK

The Portugese colonised Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique so by that logic Portugal should be stumping up for interpreters as well

Crimson Dynamo
05-03-2025, 04:19 PM
And if they are not speaking English I'd imagine they are on benefits

GoldHeart
05-03-2025, 04:43 PM
I bet you speak Portugese and if you dont you have to take an interpreter with you to hospital appointment :shrug: why should it be any different in the UK

Yeah it reminds me a bit of 90 day fiancé,where people travel overseas and don't even bother to learn for e.g Spanish or Filipino .

So they proceed to rely heavily on & lazily on Google translate, it's definitely difficult to learn a new language. And takes a long time ( I wish I was multilingual myself it's actually a regret of mine that I didn't learn) ,but I understand it takes patience & time to put in .... especially when communication and adapting is important.


I think some people get so used to having translators,that they end up solely depending on that... which just makes life more of a struggle unfortunately.

arista
05-03-2025, 04:44 PM
Yes Cherie
it goes back many years

PM Starmer - The Fool

Is more worried about Ukraine,

So nothing will change

Livia
05-03-2025, 04:50 PM
I bet you speak Portugese and if you dont you have to take an interpreter with you to hospital appointment :shrug: why should it be any different in the UK

The Portugese colonised Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique so by that logic Portugal should be stumping up for interpreters as well

The UK remains the wrong kind of coloniser, obviously.

Vanessa
05-03-2025, 05:05 PM
Those people don't want to speak english. They want to speak their own languages.
They should know English as well.

Livia
05-03-2025, 05:09 PM
I worked in southern Italy for a while and I leaned the language.

arista
05-03-2025, 05:13 PM
And if they are not speaking English I'd imagine they are on benefits

Yes could be

Vanessa
05-03-2025, 06:34 PM
I worked in southern Italy for a while and I leaned the language.

Yes working is a great way to learn the local language.

Jessica.
05-03-2025, 06:35 PM
I bet you speak Portugese and if you dont you have to take an interpreter with you to hospital appointment :shrug: why should it be any different in the UK

The Portugese colonised Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique so by that logic Portugal should be stumping up for interpreters as well

Yeah, I worked very hard to learn Portuguese but it took me a long time, even now I struggle with tenses. I didn't know a lick of it when I moved here.

Vanessa
05-03-2025, 06:36 PM
There are so many in my workplace who don't know English at all. Others don't want to speak English, they only speak in their own language.
Which is rude in front of those who don't
.

Vanessa
05-03-2025, 06:37 PM
Yeah, I worked very hard to learn Portuguese but it took me a long time, even now I struggle with tenses. I didn't know a lick of it when I moved here.

I already knew a bit of English, but really learnt it watching EastEnders :joker:

user104658
05-03-2025, 07:48 PM
While I accept that when living in a country, people should at least attempt to learn the language - I would say that us Brits are notorious hypocrites when it comes to this, and there are Brits living all over the world in non-English-speaking countries, who don't speak a word of anything other than English.

bots
05-03-2025, 07:59 PM
i've always attempted to speak in the language of the country i'm visiting, some times i failed spectacularly. I remember one time when i was in a french hotel at breakfast, and i replied to the waitress in russian and they looked at me like i was crazy :laugh:

GoldHeart
05-03-2025, 08:17 PM
While I accept that when living in a country, people should at least attempt to learn the language - I would say that us Brits are notorious hypocrites when it comes to this, and there are Brits living all over the world in non-English-speaking countries, who don't speak a word of anything other than English.

Hence why it should go both ways , there's no way I'd emigrate to say ... France or Italy and not even attempt to learn the language. You can't go around 24/7 with Google translate in your hand.. it's not always practical,and I'm sure the locals would just laugh at the Brits .

Crimson Dynamo
05-03-2025, 08:19 PM
While I accept that when living in a country, people should at least attempt to learn the language - I would say that us Brits are notorious hypocrites when it comes to this, and there are Brits living all over the world in non-English-speaking countries, who don't speak a word of anything other than English.

slightly different as English is spoken far and wide and most Film and Music is English

For example none outside of India or Pakistan or Eritrea to name 3 speak their languages

The emphasis should always be if you want to come to live in the UK you learn the language and respect our customs and we should not be spending any money for bloody interpretors or changing any signs into any other languages or leaflets etc

user104658
05-03-2025, 08:41 PM
slightly different as English is spoken far and wide and most Film and Music is English

If you go pretty much anywhere a little off the beaten tourist track you quickly find out that, no, it isn't different at all. In the bigger cities and tourist areas of most countries yes people often have functional English. Outside of that, not really.

Crimson Dynamo
05-03-2025, 09:06 PM
If you go pretty much anywhere a little off the beaten tourist track you quickly find out that, no, it isn't different at all. In the bigger cities and tourist areas of most countries yes people often have functional English. Outside of that, not really.

Yeah Iithink you are wrong, and not well travelled.

bots
05-03-2025, 09:14 PM
if you go to our closest neighbour, France, and you go outside of the tourist areas, they don't speak english

Cherie
05-03-2025, 09:15 PM
While I accept that when living in a country, people should at least attempt to learn the language - I would say that us Brits are notorious hypocrites when it comes to this, and there are Brits living all over the world in non-English-speaking countries, who don't speak a word of anything other than English.

Yes that may be correct, however the host country does not pay for interpreters for them

Cherie
05-03-2025, 09:18 PM
if you go to our closest neighbour, France, and you go outside of the tourist areas, they don't speak english

in Paris even if they speak English they pretend not to be able to :laugh: and I recall being at Eurodisney having to delve into my school French to get served

Glenn.
05-03-2025, 09:24 PM
And if they are not speaking English I'd imagine they are on benefits

And whys that? What a ridiculous post

Redway
05-03-2025, 09:25 PM
Your colonisers forced people from other countries to speak English instead of learning their language. Also it takes a very long time to learn a language. I'm sure a lot of people counted are in the process.

And out of 60 million, that’s not bad.

Redway
05-03-2025, 09:27 PM
And whys that? What a ridiculous post

Is 99% of what he posts anything other than ridiculous and intended to bait? The only difference is that I think he actually believes this one.

Glenn.
05-03-2025, 09:30 PM
I wonder how many languages he speaks

Redway
05-03-2025, 09:31 PM
I don’t even disagree that people who live here ought to know English. But with LT it’s never just about the fact alone.